The 2nd Meeting of ECO Geomatics Committee, hosted by the National Cartographic Center (NCC) of Iran was held on 27-28 August 2018 in Tehran. The delegates from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran (host), Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Turkey, as well as ECO Secretariat delegation attended the Meeting.
In his opening remarks, Eng. Masoud Shafiei, Director General of NCC of Iran, welcomed the participants to the 2nd Meeting of the ECO Geomatics Committee. While briefing on overall activities of NCC of Iran, he expressed satisfaction over successful organization of the 1st Meeting of the ECO Geomatics Committee in October 2015 followed by two consecutive capacity building Training Courses for ECO Member States on Unification of Height Datums in 2016 and 2017, respectively. The Director General called for establishment of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) for ECO Region, which would act as a catalyst in regional efforts for promotion of knowledge sharing, research and training in various fields of geomatics, including geodesy, cartography, photogrammetry, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, spatial information science, and hydrography.
In his opening statement on behalf of ECO Secretariat, Mr. Fuad Farzalibeyov, ECO Director for Energy, Minerals and Environment (EME) touched upon ECO`s profile and policy priorities with respect to ECO Geomatics Committee and other related areas, as well as the progress achieved in advancing regional agenda for surveying and mapping, notably geomatics. The Director recognized and deeply appreciated meritorious services rendered by Professor Dr. Alireza Ardalan, former Director General of NCC of Iran as the outgoing Secretary of the ECO Geomatics Committee and highlighted the developments under his able leadership.
While delivering country presentations and statements, the delegates showcased their national policies, activities, programmes and opportunities for regional cooperation in the field of geomatics, including photogrammetry, digital mapping, geodesy, topographic mapping, remote sensing activities, image processing, geo-spatial information system, geo-database, spatial data infrastructure (SDI) and research & development, relative gravity measurements, as well as disaster management. The Representatives widely stressed on the need in intensification of collective efforts in formulating ECO regional roadmap on surveying and mapping with a view to enhancing cooperation among the relevant stakeholders of the Member States through unification of height datums in the framework of ECO Geomatics Committee.
The Meeting made amendments and approved the revised Terms of Reference (ToR) of the ECO Geomatics Committee and elected Dr. Ali Soltanpour, General Manager of Hydrography & Tidal Analysis of NCC of Iran as the new Secretary of the Committee till convening of the 3rd Meeting of the ECO Geomatics Committee.
The Meeting extensively reviewed the ongoing initiatives within the ECO Geomatics Committee, notably designing of ECO Geomatics Publication/Journal, appointment of National Focal Points and establishment of special Working Groups. Furthermore, the Meeting took into account a wide array of issues and decided on organization of more capacity building training programmes in the field of geomatics; establishment of Geodetic Datums of different types (Gravity Datum; 3-D Geodetic Datum; and Height Datum) for carrying out joint activities at regional level; designing of ECO Regional Disaster Risk Maps; establishment of ECO Regional Portal for sharing data on Disaster Management; strengthening of cooperation among surveying and mapping organizations of Member States to deal with disasters and effects of hazards in the neighboring countries; reflection of pragmatic contribution of the ECO Geomatics Committee in the ECO policy making bodies including ECO Vision 2025, as well as highlighting key contributions of ECO Geomatics Committee in implementation of the UN Development Agenda 2030.
On 28 August 2018, the host arranged a technical visit to premises of NCC of Iran, where the participants became familiar with main activities, functions and capacities of NCC in areas of photogrammetry, image processing, geodesy and GNNS processing, geo spatial information services and others.
